Starbucks
by kitsunerei88
Summary: Oneshot, Holiday Fic. Sometimes, falling in love just happens, especially when you don’t want it to.


**Title:**Starbucks  
**Fandom: **Ouran High School Host Club**  
Author:**kitsunerei88**  
Pairing(s): **Kyouya/Haruhi**  
Rating:** PG13  
**Ge****nre:**Introspective/Romance**  
Summary: **[Oneshot, Holiday Fic Exchange: Prompt: Ice Sometimes, falling in love just happens, especially when you don't want it to.**  
Warnings:** Stylistic oddities.  
**Disclaimer:**Ouran High School Host Club is the property of Bisco Hatori. And various other companies, I'm sure.  
**Word Count:** 1221  
**Thank Yous:** Setsuna Kagami for looking it over for me.

Starbucks

"No, I'm very sorry," Kyouya replied, smiling kindly, at the first year that had caught up with him in the hallway. She was the youngest daughter of a major electronics company's CEO, he was well aware. It wouldn't do to offend her. "I'm already occupied on Christmas Eve."

The girl looked as if she was about to burst into tears. In fact, she probably would if he wasn't careful. "Do you . . . do you already have someone else?"

"No, no," Kyouya said, artfully hastening his speech and injecting just the right amount of alarm. "No, my family has a policy of spending time together on Christmas Eve. I'm very sorry."

"Oh. I see." The first year stared down at her shoes, swallowing the lie. "Umm, I will be, umm, going then." She turned around and fled; it had evidently taken all her courage to even ask the cool upperclassman to spend Christmas Eve with her.

Meet Kyouya Ohtori; handsome, intelligent, and cool. Kyouya Ohtori, who had everything and wanted more. Just not in terms of love; love was for the weak, for the romantic. Love made you stupid, shameless, and poor. Which was why, of course, it was so great for manipulating people. As long as you didn't fall in love yourself, that is.

Yes, indeed, Kyouya Ohtori was an ice king.

One floor below him, a very different person was in the exact same situation he had been.

"No, I'm very sorry," Haruhi replied, bowing her head in apology at the petite, blonde girl in front of her. Was she in 1-B? Haruhi wasn't sure who she was. "My father and I traditionally spend time together on Christmas Eve; I'm very sorry!"

"I . . . I see," the girl said, her eyes filling with tears. "I understand." She turned and left, dignified, her blonde hair fluttering into place behind her.

Haruhi sighed. How many times was this going to play out again? She didn't like lying, but it was necessary. She didn't want to spend time with any of the girls on Christmas Eve.

Meet Haruhi Fujioka; handsome, intelligent, and a natural. Haruhi Fujioka, whose major goal in life was to become a lawyer, and who had entered Ouran High School on a special scholarship for that exact purpose. Love wasn't something she wanted; she had far, far too much to do to have time for something as frivolous as that.

Yes, in her own way, Haruhi Fujioka was an ice queen.

So on Christmas Eve, what are our ice king and ice queen doing together sitting in a common Starbucks?

"It's cold today," Haruhi murmured softly, staring outside the window. Fat snowflakes drifted down from the sky; the wind blew them into fantastic swirls. Long icicles hung from the cloth overhang. She could almost see the twins having sword fights with them, if they were here. Turning her gaze down to her white hot chocolate, she warmed her cold fingers against the cup, before cautiously taking a sip. The warmth flowed into her, immediately making the chill of the fifteen minute walk here disappear.

"Mmm," Kyouya agreed, gazing outside the window as well. His chai tea latte sat on the table, steam rising in curls above it. His fingers brushed the paper cup tenderly, taking in its warmth. The action was discreet, as he himself tended to be. He turned back to Haruhi. "It will be a white Christmas."

"So it will." Haruhi smiled softly. "Are you sure this place is . . ." she hesitated, looking around. It was crowded tonight. Of course, she thought, it would be. It was Christmas Eve tonight, the busiest night of the year for any food establishments. Beethoven's Ninth Symphony hummed softly underneath the chatter of the people. "High class enough for you?"

He raised an eyebrow at her expression. She was so nervous; in an odd way, it pleased him that he unsettled her so much. "I wouldn't have suggested it if it wasn't," he replied. "We won't be recognized here."

Haruhi supposed that was true. Any Ouran student with a date tonight will have gotten a reservation at a nice restaurant. But there were others, she thought, others that might have gotten in their minds to come to a commoner's coffee shop on Christmas Eve. "And what about Tamaki and the others?"

"Tamaki was going to have a party," Kyouya let an amused smile creep onto his face. "But none of the girls wanted to come after they found out there would be other girls there. He'll be sulking in his room."

Haruhi laughed. It was so like Tamaki; when Kyouya had given the orders to turn down all the invitations the Host Club members got to spend Christmas Eve with someone, Tamaki had invariably ignored him and accepted any invitations that he had gotten. He had argued that while showing favouritism would lead to a decrease in revenue, it wasn't showing favouritism if he accepted all invitations. "And what about the twins, Honey-senpai, and Mori-senpai?"

"The twins are at home, watching Home Alone." Kyouya smiled wryly. "It's their favourite. Honey-senpai and Mori-senpai are also probably at home."

"I see." Haruhi took another sip of her hot chocolate. It was sweet; while she normally didn't like sweets, today seemed to be special. She struggled to think of something to say; the silence was awkward.

"It's good." Kyouya murmured, caught in the same dilemma as the girl across from him. He sipped at his latte quietly. "Perhaps we should visit Starbucks more often."

"We?" Haruhi asked, surprised.

"You and I," Kyouya said. He couldn't believe that he was saying that. After all, love was for morons. Morons went into coffee shops on Christmas Eve and drank coffee with their girlfriends. Though, to his credit, Haruhi wasn't his girlfriend, per se. He just cared about her. He'd invited her out, thinking that she would be lonely; after all, Ranka would be working at the bar until the early hours of the morning, serving other couples. Was that love?

If it was, it sucked. Being in love would wreck everything he'd worked towards.

"You and I?" Haruhi replied, confused, staring at the boy across from her. No, no, she didn't want this. She was going to graduate from Ouran, get that special scholarship to enter the law department at the university, and move on. She didn't have time for petty things like falling in love. She didn't have time to go temporarily insane and do stupid things. She had to study. And yet . . . And yet she couldn't seem to bring herself to turn him down, just as she hadn't been able to turn him down when he had called earlier today, inviting her out.

Then she caught sight of the reflection of their faces in the glass window beside them, and laughed. The same aghast expression adorned both their faces; Kyouya's for having suggested it and hers for having heard it. Kyouya had evidently caught it as well, for a quiet smile crossed his face. They were both in the same situation, they realized.

"Sure," she replied, turning to face him. "Starbucks it is."

And so the ice king and the ice queen fell in love, neither desiring it nor embracing it, yet unable to resist it.

**Author's Notes: **I tried writing this in a different style than usual, thus there is a strict third-party narrator which I've never used before; opinions on it would be great. I'm used to writing from a particular character's perspective, or from multiple characters' perspectives (and flipping between) . . . this was definitely fun to write.

Please comment/review! Feedback would be awesome!


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